| |
| |
Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
This is a reduced-resolution page image for fast online browsing.
EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:
Illinois Plan Before Congress 95 living. Mrs. Mary Carriel, daughter of J. B. Turner, a woman of affairs in the state long before her father's death, has published the statement that the Illinois men shortly after Senator Trumbull's letter of October 19, 1857, decided to send all documents, papers, and pamphlets to Mr. Morrill with the request that he introduce the bill.7 The other witness to this fact is a gentle* man in no way related to the Turner family. Rev. Mr. J. B. Reasoner of Urbana, a man of high reputation and wide acquaintance, a scientist of no mean ability in the field of plant breeding, stated to the writer that at one time he had a long conversation on the subject of the land grant act with Jonathan Turner, who told him that he had taken the matter of having the bill introduced in congress to Mr. Morrill. Justin S. Morrill entered congress on December 4,1855, four years after the launching of the movement in Illinois for a land grant for industrial universities in each of the states, and a year and one-half after the proposition had been presented to congress by the legislature of Illinois. And it was still another year before the idea of such a grant of land came to his attention, although on February 28, 1856, three months after he entered congress, Mr. Morrill had .introduced a resolution in the house of representatives that "the committee on agriculture be requested to enquire into the expediency of establishing one or more national agricultural schools upon the basis of the naval and military schools, in order that one scholar from each state at large may receive a scientific and practical education at the public expense." 8 In a memorandum by Representative Morrill himself, furnished by his son, it is stated that the idea of obtaining a grant of land for the foundation of colleges came to him as early as 1856. It was apparently later than the resolution mentioned above, which presents a very different idea. He says also in the memorandum, "Where I obtained the first hint of such a measure I am wholly unable to say,*?9 'Carriel, Life of Turner, 159. ^Congressional Globe, 34 congress, 1 session, 530. •Manuscript at University of Illinois. See appendix, p. 525.
| |
